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The Awakening of Paredon Blanco 67

floating for hours upon sugar casks and other wreckage.
He told such marvelous tales that the Californians called
them mentiras (lies).
In the year 1837, Don Esteban gave his son Francisco
Lopez,® mi padre, a large tract of land as a wedding endow-
ment. The land was next that of his father. The two
properties were divided by a narrow water ditch. It took
Don Francisco but a few years to transform the wild stretch
of land into a veritable paradise. Don Francisco did not
only look after his orchard and vineyard, but managed other
affairs at the same time. In the autumn of 1849, he began
to export grapes to San Francisco. His were the best and
ripened earlier than any other in this part of the state.
These grapes were sold for ten dollars per hundred pounds.
After a while the crops were sold for several years in suc-
cession to Don Mateo Keller, who came to Los Angeles in
1850. Later, an Italian, named Trabucco, a merchant from
San Francisco, bought the grapes and superintended the
packing himself. In 1859, another merchant from San
Francisco named Gilmore got a contract for the exporta-
tion of the grapes and directed the packing. Don Fran-
cisco also made wines from the grapes that were left and
brandy from the sugar cane.
In 1851, Don Francisco had a contract from Mr. Phineas
Banning for hauling freight from San Pedro to Los Angeles,
using in this contract a train of over twenty-five carretas
(ox carts). He also furnished lumber for building and
took building contracts. He brought the lumber for Don
Benito Wilson’s home from a saw-mill which had been es-
tablished in the San Bernardino Mountains. 8 Some time in
the early fifties, Don Francisco and Don Mateo Keller
planted a field with cotton on the west bank of the river,
south of the Wolfskill tract in the southwest part of the
city, which yielded a fine crop. Not finding a market for
it in California, the industry was abandoned. This was
the first successful attempt at raising cotton in the state.
5. Francisco Lopez was often called by his nickname, Chico. He married
Marla del Rosario AJmenarez y Cesena.
This house was Wilson’s Lake Vineyard Rancho, now
6. built on Mr.
a Part of the Santa Anita Rancho (Lucky Baldwin estate). Originally, the
property was part of the San Gabriel Mission lands. After secularization, it
was granted to Claudio Lopez.